CIO Awards Honours Nigerian Tech Executives

Men and women working behind the scenes to drive technology use in various firms in Nigeria, have been recognised at the maiden Chief Information Officer (CIO) Awards.

The winners of the awards, who were said to have distinguished themselves by deepening technology use at their various organisations were selected by a jury of tech experts chaired by the Executive Director of Information Technology and Operations at Access Bank, Mr. Ade Bajomo.

Some of the winners of the CIO awards include: Okechukwu Iroegbu of Stanbic IBTC; Sina Ayegbusi of GTBank, and Richard Amanfonye of Wema Bank, all in the banking category. In the Fintech category, Ezra Olubi of Paystack, Musty Mustpha of Kuda, and Wale Onawunki of Appzone also emerged as CIO of the Year.

Others are: Olusanjo Shodimu of AIICO Insurance, Kola Okunola of Federal Inland Revenue, Olugbenga Senbore of Guinness Nigeria, and Obinna Ukonu of Nigerian Bottling Company. A former Minister of Communications, Dr. Omobola Johnson was also honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award.

Speaking at the award ceremony, the Chief Executive Officer of Edniesal Consulting and Chief Organiser of the awards, Mrs. Abiola Oleseinde, said CIOs had overtime been responsible for delivering top-of-the-line innovation and business value within their organisations while also being at the forefront of decision making and strategic change. This class of business leaders, she said, is hardly visible nor celebrated in most organisations, adding that their role has increased in importance over time as they evolve from information to innovation and leading the digital transformation initiatives.

“It is therefore Edniesal’s commitment to recognise individual and enterprise excellence in innovation and technology across different sectors. It is indeed the celebration of the individuals and talented teams behind business transformations across different sectors in Nigeria,” she said.

Explaining how the finalists were selected, Laseinde said calls for entries for the different award categories were opened from 4th August 2020 to 30th September 2020.

“Afterwards, the shortlisted nominees were reviewed and evaluated by a team of independent Jury. The Jury members are leaders carefully selected across sectors with expertise in their respective fields. Entries from nominees were reviewed based on business innovation and outstanding leadership. Special consideration for nominees who are leveraging leading-edge IT practices to produce measurable results,” she said.